If you’re looking to get cultured, Canberra is the place to be. Beyond the capital’s renowned galleries and museums, it offers a dazzling array of festivals and events that truly showcase its cultural vibrancy.
Australia’s most fabulous flower festival, Floriade, draws almost half a million people to Canberra each spring with its colourful displays, fun activities and after-dark entertainment. Come autumn, crowds rally around the dazzling Enlighten Festival, featuring the much-anticipated Canberra Balloon Spectacular. Check out our round-up of the best festivals in Canberra this year.
🎸 The greatest music and arts festivals in Australia
🍔 The best food festivals in Australia
🌳 All the best things to do in Canberra
February
Creativity, colour and culture collide in the capital for Australia’s largest celebration of cultural diversity, held every February. You can embark on a global culinary adventure with stallholders representing up to 170 diverse cultures, while enjoying a vibrant mix of music, dance and cooking demonstrations. From the rhythms of Cambodia to the flavours of Chile, France and Fiji, this festival is a full-on feast for the senses.
March
For ten magical autumn nights, Canberra becomes a nocturnal playground, with colourful light projections on iconic national attractions like Parliament House, the National Library of Australia and Questacon. In fact, the full city comes alive as a full festival hub with past after-dark experiences, including silent discos, outdoor symphony concerts, night noodle markets and a short film festival.
March
34 meters tall, 24 meters long, with ten pendulous breasts and a placid, turtle’s smile. This was the balloon commissioned by Canberra-raised artist Patricia Piccinini to celebrate the city’s centenary. While the ‘Skywhale’ doesn’t take flight at every annual Balloon Spectacular, the fact it was commissioned at all (for $350,000 no less) speaks to Canberrans' enduring love for hot air balloons. Brave a chilly March morning to watch dozens of balloons float over Lake Burley Griffin and you’ll feel the fondness too. You can even snag yourself a spot on one of them for an aerial view of the city taken in at a lazy pace.
June
For everyone Down Under who feels cheated out of a wintery Yuletide fest, look no further than this Xmas in July festival going down in Australia’s answer to a freezing European village – Canberra. Each year, the open-air festival brings a gorgeous array of torched marshmallows and (boozy) hot chocolates, melted French cheeses, more than 40 pop-up French and European food stalls, fire pits, a mulled wine garden, free French concerts and all-round Christmas market vibes (complete with legit falling 'snow') to Canberra’s Parkes Place lawn. And it's free entry. Joyeux Noël.
September/October
If you think Tulip Fever is just for 17th-century Dutchmen, you haven’t been to Floriade. This month-long flower festival – which is the largest in Australia – sees more than one million bulbs planted in decorative garden beds, forming spectacular waves of colour. You can learn tips from gardening pros at demonstrations held in dedicated marquees or visit the flowers by night to take in evening concerts, movies and dance parties.
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